and of this stuff that i've got. on larry king meet country star gary alan to me country music is still what monday through friday and pops about what happens on the weekends is taylor swift country is carrie underwood country well i would say no i would say the pop artist making a living in in the country join her i guess i've always put heads about what i should sound like and when and how i should do it and it's probably cost me a lot in hindsight plus we have a gay country star i know that any anything that any blip that i've ever seen from the people that i know it's instantly covered up all next on larry king now. welcome to larry king our special guest is gary our only country music star and platinum selling artist his nine thousand homes said you free we got it right here

was released in january he's currently traveling the country with our friend sheryl crow on the free and easy tour how did that come about we did a few acoustic shows together and i. realized she was she had a country album coming out and she's always had like a kind of a kind of a country edge to me anyways and there was something always kind of country about sheryl crow to me and she's singing country on the tour she is she has just released a country album she's doing all the hits too and she's got a sluggo i'm going to always feel like we had a rock edge and it was a good mix a great girl yeah she's a great hang two great verse from southern california when you think country you think nashville yes i get told that a lot but there's one or an anomaly what happens there's a lot of roots here there's a buck owens and we're all haggard why yoko and there was lots in california for me to cut my teeth on you're single every storm has gone platinum right yes you sold more than seven million albums today you've had five number one songs every store man to man watching airplanes nothing on but the radio and tells little boys your

latest album one we have is set you free made his debut number one on the boob. two hundred pop chart no one on the billboard country album chart number one on amazon a number one on i tunes are you surprised at how well this is taken off. yet pleasantly surprised i mean did you think it would be a big hit you know i think about about everything i put out you know you could you finish it and it's your baby and you believe in it so yeah you always put it out a certain time songs can surprise you absolutely and sometimes you know you miss sometimes you think you have it you put it out there and he didn't why did they call you country music's mainstream maverick. you're an outsider how do you know i don't i don't know how i got that title i'm probably being from california and. and doing things my own way you know i mean musically i've always i guess i've always butted heads about what i should sound like and when and how i should do it and i've always managed to do it my way and it's probably cost me

a lot in hindsight but it has with managers record executive producers music all of it and i have i can always tell people i don't know how i ended up the outsider or me that. you handle things i think i've done alright with it i think it definitely reveals character you'll find out who the person is if you give them a little you know fame and money i think i'm but i was a i had my head together i think before i got in so what attracted you to the country my dad played and so did my brother so i played bar since i was twelve. you know three to five nights a week and it was always it was always just very cutting to me i remember the women too or. was very life changing for me that's when country music became very rock'n'roll to me very cutting and it was all just lyrics just truth of the different as much of country i mean is there hard country rock is the do rob does their capital mainstream absolutely i think there's mainstream there's old school country and you know there's always

a question if things are too country which has gone back to the i was reading a hank williams book and somebody had played a lick and they asked in the micro is that too country and so i think though that that problem or and question has always been here did you have a not a mentor did you have someone you loved a lot as a country are absolutely merle haggard's he was he was probably my favorite his songwriting and and just his music and sometimes they get to do definitions guy like for example is is is taylor swift country is carrie underwood country. you know i would say no i would say they're pop artists making a living in in the country johndroe but. i also feel like we lost our john or i but i don't feel like i make music for john deere anymore and i did you know ten fifteen years ago but. i think since the since since the clear channels in the in the you know the cumulus is in the big the big companies bought up all the chains now it's about a demographic you know so they've kind of sliced everything up feeding to the public you know i'm out of the exam exactly like if you want to get to the young

kids you put it on the on the alternative station you want to get to the to this demographic and we've we've sort of ended up in this with nicknamed the soccer mom like thirty five to forty five year old woman i think is what our demographic is so it's very different used to be able to turn on the radio and you knew instantly it was a country station just by listening to it and now you got to leave it there for a second to figure it out and now you go out and you like give a dialogue you know what i personally don't like it because i loved i love the character of country music and i love what it what it is and the lifestyle of it but now it seems like it's it's still songs about life to me country music is still like monday through friday and pops about what happens on the weekends. but it's definitely changed how you feel about awards like country music awards you want to get nominated you're nominated this year right now i'm cut in neutral on that stuff that stuff usually politics and so i try not to get too wrapped up into it it's obviously it's important to be on the shows and i'd i would rather be on the shows but i don't get my heart broken i'm not on there is it harder to make it now.

i would say yeah because it's such a singles. format you know i think the new kids coming up and they get to make a single instead of an album and swing at it you know that seems like they get a light pitch in there and if it flies it flies of it doesn't they move on also the whole hundred business right absolutely hold music the right to bits and salute what they download them out right and yeah yeah yeah yeah i do you know get the flavor of the album you know my parents were always the album cuts in the deep deep catalog stuff and now everybody's just sort of force that singles and they go on by the one song from i tunes that they like it's very different do they so maybe i'm getting old fashioned do you guys still do the radio tours where you go to local radio stations absolutely and i still do them now i did it when i launched this still go out and see the important people and you know the people that just missed still key arabia stations around the country absolutely even though there's three people that own all of the exact line and the inmates are running the asylum and that's really where i was

a radio freak ever radio business has totally changed yes i don't know how seriously that series roots country music stations in do you tour a lot i do i tour pretty much all year i usually shoot for a number of my usually shoot eighty and a hundred shows and then i just kind of let them fall where they fall so we don't really do like a six month block or when you're always sheryl do you do it i hope so i'm going to learn one of her songs and we talked about it a little bit lightly but we haven't actually been in the same room and done it it's been almost a decade since you lost your wife then there's a credible tragedy she killed a sofa your house with the kids home yes what would the circumstances who was a middle of the night. she was going through a lot she was depressed and had headaches that was kind of what the thing was migraines yeah. and i think that's what it was they ended up treating the migraines and it was really like a depression thing like a cycle that she was in but it seemed like they just keep kept loading her down with drugs so. anyway it was a night she was having

a hard time and. she asked me to step out and get her a coke and i stepped out of the bathroom and or out of the bedroom and heard a pop and came and others of she had shot herself. and i had six kids in the house . while i managed to keep everybody asleep and called who called the called the cops called the manager. police came over. i remember the hold all night i was just kind of in shock i was just shaking and crying and and just i mean couldn't you couldn't make any sense of anything oh she was thirty four. thirty five right in there have you haven't remarried you know how the kids him lola's you know i think they're they're good i spent a lot of time going to their p. you know with everybody trying to make sure that everybody landed on their feet and i think everybody's there at least in a place that can talk about it and with your wife in therapy she was it's

a shock of course that salut lee. was what is another question that can't be one hundred percent shocked you know what i never realized it was that point she had mentioned like suicide to other people but never me so it was we all talked after you know hindsight and we're able to dissect and kind of point how do you know view it as a victim of it do you view it as you have some guilt yet you know you have tremendous guilt you just anything that was going wrong. and i think that's the toughest part of getting through it is is actually telling yourself it's ok to move on at some point and and actually doing it you stop working i did for a little bit but. i found out quickly that music was going to be my therapy. it really did me a lot of good to write with my friends and kick around every emotion in every angle and talk about it over and over and over and and write songs and

a lot of the songs never made like because nobody would want to hear those over and over and there was an album in there that was just really expensive therapy i mean who had just spent thousands in well i was going to his own sort of personal yeah and i think that's why i didn't want to ignore it i had a really hard time writing right when it happened and the first single that we put out after that was a remake of a vertical rise and song called the best i ever had and it sort of gave me a break not having to write but it also didn't ignore it and i didn't want to ignore it because i believe that that's what country music is you know so i try to make sure that i i kept that i least wrote about it and was open about how i dealt with it have you learned a lot about depression since yeah i think you you can't help but it is a major problem in the merthyr yeah because over twenty five million people are afflicted is probably more than that right and people are shame to come forward about it so i thought yes something's got to be done to this effect the relationships you wary i'm definitely gun shy you know i can tell myself that i'm

not but i. getting getting close to somebody scares the shit i mean and. that was ten years ago how old are the kids no eighteen to twenty three you raise them yeah. wasn't that hard to be a singer on the road and six kids very very very and trying to make sure you didn't drop the ball anybody i've a have a great nanny of you know i did a pirate a couple of her other family members so it's all we it's all the same people that have been with me for you know fifteen years so we it's the best support system that i could have put together the dead have been in california and in tennessee oh you moved yeah i we got married we lived in california for a little bit and then one day i just added up days that i was missing with my kids and it was a whole bunch just being stuck in an airport so i moved everybody to tennessee did the mind grains cause the depression was migraines

a terrible i can't tell what it was a circle so i couldn't tell if that was it or if the or if the depression caused the migraines and there was something very significant about being in tennessee too that was it's like the allergy capital of the world so everything just got exacerbated she she couldn't go outside in the mornings and i mean we kicked around moving back to california because she seemed to be so sick and just down all the time there. but you know i just i never realized how bad it was do you speak out above depression. when asked down a few charity things but yet for a while there i couldn't talk about it probably but i was right in the heat of it in fact i quit doing media quit doing meet and greets and everybody wanted to tell me their story about their spouse or friend that had committed suicide and i got to where i i couldn't hear ten or fifteen of those stories and then go out to be sunshiny so i just got to i didn't talk to anybody and it was only last few years that i got to where i could have done many interviews over the years and all the

years of in the business and a lot about the suicides and like i moved with great just the seven different types of suicides that some suicides of people wish they would have like to not try that those who admit that recovery. do you do you regard it as guts or chicken chicken. cowardly definitely they're afraid to yeah i mean it seems like that's where the anger came from from a just you know it's that was it was a it was a terrible way out and a terrible way to leave and why did she give up exactly do this stand in let you exactly that's it was the kids that you just like why would you do that she was the best person. and the most caring though she was the one that was always always had everybody taking care of just at the world on her shoulders at all times and and always seem like she handled it well great you talk about gary allen the new album is set you free when we come back there is going to clear up so country

misconceptions that's not just. to the future. technologies the name in aviation is the game late he still might six of the months a noble postals brings in of a sense new heights and don't the ground the green knight shape lots of things come to be updated year on. one of the annual strong arm in a lot of cities they face and i think sometimes people.

pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i received from. the. time of the new alert animation gets scared. me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears of joy and great things out there that there had to be added regard at a court of law found online is a story made for the movies playing out in real life. with that with gary allen the new cd is said to you free will say she dean's until

now i guess a and he's touring with sheryl crow and they're on tour what the rest of the year we got in the next ten ten shows the next couple of months some things about country music misconceptions we'll think the country music we think read right wing conservatives true definitely not true. i see i guess i see both sides that i talk to. you get your super super conservative people and you've also got your you know ultra liberal out there way to put yourself. on the liberal side i'm not super conservative. charlie pride was a great black music shot i don't know how the child is doing now i don't either is the field open to a black country star. you know i think the right guy came along we thought a couple train triggs i think was a few years back and it's jolly was to review a hero amazing knowing that he had and you you never know when he's black to anyone

i know it was almost like elvis you'd never know he was white when i first heard over so i thought he was black at tom jones to get me to all of them will we have a gay country star my do we one now we don't know yet i'm sure there's been a few in his published this public opinion change yeah well i know i five know i'm on my side but they just never been public would you do most of. the you think the field would accept this was in summer a major country person came out. you know we talked about this in sports you're right because it is a conservative that's when that's when i realized how conservative it is when you say that who knows i know that any anything that any blip that i've ever seen from the people that i know it's instantly covered up you know i want to out anybody but yet i know that's what is the biggest misconception about country music. and that it that it is a bunch of backwards you know redneck i think it's just like when southern people don't like the way they're portrayed on the news i think it's

a lot more mainstream than people think and even the even the people that don't like it have a very close friends that are listening to it and buy into it as though the blues the louer it's almost total story yeah yeah that's right and that's that's what i mean when i say it's about life it's the monday through friday of american music. and deals yet they deal with actual problems do you deal you meet a lot of aspiring young country musicians i do. so business it is a tough business it's especially right now because nobody really even knows where the markets go and it's very up in the air right now do most stars write their own stuff now no it's fact there's a whole stable a whole team a whole town of writers in nashville and pretty much everybody every genre comes there to write even if you're a guy you come in and you write with some of the cats in nashville it's just a very heavy song machine most people go to what they would call a song plugger and then they pitch them songs like

a salesman and then you decide the ones that you like and you pay the writer you have a business a clothing store i do got a men's store in nashville it's like high end leather. you know like skulls and stuff like that and it's also like high end business suits and so usually two years two years this one's called the label the label that they know is yours the public to really go buy it it's gary oh yeah or yeah they do i got my kids working and they run it for me it's it's pretty fun how did you get into that you don't have a lot of friends here that are good or designers and they kind of compete with each other here they wouldn't all be in the same room but when i approached them about doing a boutique in nashville it seems like everybody nashville is paying a stylist to fly to new york and l.a. and i thought i could least save in the plane fare and and we have we get most of the bands that come through most of the rock acts and country acts when you're. on stage what's the apparel of choice everything out of my store was what it's jeans with like leather skulls on and stuff like that other skulls whatever are legit old

stalls yeah yeah yeah it was just yeah or just patterns. and. i don't mean to pull that you're into skulls diane i am more like scholes was always happened since i was a little kid i got my first goal tattooed on me i think when i was fourteen do you like touring i love it you know i make records so that i can tour and a lot of people don't like to tour and it's a relentless life but i've done it for the last twenty years ago plus the sions with you yes i carry an eight piece band do you. think it was silly or all the time i have written on my set list and i still mess it up every once in a while i'll yell out thank you to the rock city. because of it and everybody that right yes country fans of all the fans of music are the closest to be artists correct absolutely the country all of us are usually the most assessable yeah they don't hide their kind of you can meet them yeah absolutely at fan club parties and

especially like fanfare you know that's when i was i broadcast the radio evening from then fit yeah boots yeah totally so yeah it's very excessive all in the you don't see anything like that rock'n'roll it's its own kind of thing and because of that the fans are so loyal they stick with you forever and and that's what you can have such a long career in country music you have a worry about your voice yeah absolutely i had a polyp removed two years ago and and you know you can talk for a month and they all although you know the doctor's done it five thousand times she's still going to sign away with the says you might not talk and she might break your teeth and and blah blah blah so it was a scary time but you know two story great bing crosby years ago when he was young had a polyp removed and it changed his voice for the better while it gave him a little bit yeah the change yours it didn't. all they did was turn it back into when i was eighteen again i'd lost my full set up just couldn't i don't say we're just air then yeah good yeah and i had like to keep them from closing your real

name is gary hirshberg middle name alan i was twelve playing playing a bar and an old man what you write my name on the marquee and he said what's your name son i said carriers were getting went through what your middle name said and it goes about we use that we have some social media questions for you dallas brooks via twitter wants to know if you agree with alan jackson statement that there's no country stuff left. you know what my new single is called it ain't the whiskey and it's the most country thing i've put out in a long time so listen to that and is that in this i don't i grabbed on every it is on this album and it's that it ain't the whiskey it ain't the whiskey bob girl tweets what most students spiers you. every day of things that happen to people if somebody tells me a story that's usually where my songs come from usually they'll give you the hope they'll give you the whole thing you just have to be aware i'm a winner ninety nine wants to know which country artist shop at the label. i dressed almost every guy that was on the sea of days in the a.c.m.

so all of them know so you're an in-store right yeah we're there we're pretty much the only game in town right now for guys clothes and national going to open so most stores i doubt it it was this was more than i had bargained for i think you know putting a retail store sound easy to me and then when i was in the middle of it it was a lot and now i've got my kids and their work and to and which is nice because it's right there by bill or they all go to school so it's a nice little family business tied carol the a facebook is wondering if you're planning on getting any more tattoos. yeah but i have no idea what or where why do you tend to always like them as a kid yeah i think my dad always told me that you're going to regret it when when you're older and what if you get a real job and and i think it's all i think i'm good with and my job does is heard it does yeah it's like having somebody so on your arm it's a little sullen needle why would you do that you know what that's a crick quests i would do anything else that hurt i don't know i like it like the way it looks like i think it's grew up in orange county and it was really all the

time i would do and he had removed you know. we play a little game called if you only knew just off the top first good you have a kissed. deal no sparks a diploma spars that's right and ends in orange county up in disney land in disney want to ride it on a ride whole you fifth grade sixth grade right in there you know if i know what happened to her i just start sr not too long ago and she they'll all be coming to the greek theater tomorrow. that's terrific place where you have a place a guilty pleasure. guitars of the you you you would share all musician you'd like to collaborate with. you know one sheet on the other than cheryl maybe lee ann womack but she would be a great one to do something with i think we fit the band your fans would be surprised to know you listen to this prized and i listen to the band i

listen to them a lot any person who wouldn't you know they were kind of whiskey. jack i knew it. and you know it's right there right tennessee blended whiskey sinatra's only drink nice want to the name he wanted he wanted it tied to jack daniels ah so good stuff there is the most value in others on a city. if you weren't a musician what would you be who would be in jail somewhere. but i would guess you'd be as close to zero tell me something no one knows about you. i used to use the build to spec homes before i got a record contract that's big now you know there are some successful actors who keep doing it while you buy a house you live in to get out limited and then sell it right then you have to live in the next one you know i. could you make money that way you can but i would i

don't think i'd ever want to live under construction again i did that for too long and to have people in my house all the time it drives me bananas you need initial capital of the make the first buy the idea best advice you have received. be nice to everybody on the way up because you'll see them all on the way back down you have nights where your ball. yeah in my eyes i don't think i don't think anybody else's eyes but i was do my heart out of myself i think any time i didn't give him all that i could i feel like that isaac stern the great while in the stormy ones when i'm at my worst the public that they don't know the least absolutely i agree with that do you play every day i do. gary great she was my pleasure to be my pleasure thanks to our guest gary i'll go get your mom is free and easy to it was sheryl crow and remember you can find me on twitter at kings things i'll see you next time.

please please carol a family's very hard to take a look once again long here there's a lot happening that are back with the earthquake there are millions. of dollars lot. of. money if. the people.

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hello and welcome to this special edition of technology updates where we look to the skies to see the peak of russian innovation on today's show we captured glimpses of bush's latest stealth fighter. we find out that's a cross between a battery and a combustion engine isn't just a load of. on the ground we learned about the mysterious night. but first let's take a look at some of the highlights of this month's show. the international aviation space show is the highlights of the calendar just a.